In Which I’ll Talk About What You Can Do This Summer

In Which I’ll Talk About What You Can Do This Summer

That’s one helluva title for a column, isn’t it? I thought so, although I have no idea if I think that is a good or a bad thing. It doesn’t really matter, luckily.

Folks, it is summer and that means vacations for everybody!

Well, not exactly, I’ll be working all summer, with both Odd Alice (still time to apply for a job there /shameless self-plug) and other things. You know, projects. Some of them are WordPress related, but not all. That’s the life of a freelance writer and author, I go and do what the work tells me.

Well, not exactly that either, but you get the point.

Now I know you’re not really dying to know what I’m up to during summer, especially since you don’t have anything on your own plate. I can help you with that, so here are nine things you can do this summer to become a better WordPresser.

Post on the wordpress.org support forums. And by that I don’t mean go there and type FIRST!!! on every bloody topic, but rather help fellow WordPress users in need.

Release a theme. That means you actually need to create one first. Contribute to the community by releasing a theme.

Release a plugin. Is there a feature that WordPress lacks, or something that can be improved upon? Write a plugin and release it!

Contribute to WordPress core by submitting tickets. This is perhaps a bit more complicated than merely releasing themes and plugins, but do take a look at the Trac and see if you can pitch in.

Upgrade your code standard. When was the last time you looked over your way of writing code? Are you following the WordPress standard, and are you using all those new and cool features? Read up, and learn something new. If you need help taking that extra step, there’s always this book…

Hug a theme or plugin reviewer. If you can, at least. If not, give them an encouraging word, or even send them a little something if they’re that sort of person who takes donations.

In fact, donate! There are a lot of non-commercial projects within the WordPress ecosystem. You can help out by submitting code to them, but you can also send a little something to pay for coffee/beer/crack to the developer. Do that, if you’re able, you’ll feel good about it, I promise.

Help a friend move to WordPress. Get a friend started, or help a friend get back on his or her feet after being hacked because WordPress wasn’t updated. Something like that, help grow the community by helping others get started, that’s a good thing to do if you ask me.

Do something completely different. Get some sun, play a sport, master an instrument, read a book, sleep until noon. Whatever you want, take some time to make yourself feel better, if you need it. If not, rinse and repeat this list.

There you go, your summer is saved! You may thank me later.

Be good until I’m back, sometime early autumn most likely. If you can’t get enough of my random wordness, be sure to put TDH.me in your feed reader (it might get some additional love later in the summer), and do follow @tdh on Twitter.

Thord Daniel Hedengren is addicted to words, which is fortunate since he's a writer. TDH the author has written books on WordPress, Tumblr, and the Sega Dreamcast among other things. TDH the freelancer is a regular contributor to Web Designer magazine and occasionally appears on Smashing Magazine. He blogs at TDH.me and tweets under @tdh.